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State Aid Resources for Pennsylvania Public Libraries

Audits and Financial Reviews

Timeline

All audits/financial reviews for the calendar year of 2022, will be submitted with the 2024 State Aid Library Subsidy Application (SALSA). The application may have an earlier due date, but the final cut off date for the audit/financial review will be due by October 1, 2024. If libraries have already completed their 2022 filing, they should hold on to it for attachment to next year’s SALSA. District consultants and system administrators may still ask for the filings, if they so desire; however, we do not want the filings submitted in any other way than the SALSA. 

The extension of time to complete this requirement will allow for all audits/financial reviews, including those attached to municipal audits, to be completed in a timely manner and submitted in for the October 1 deadline that is listed in the current regulations. 

Audits/Financial Reviews for the Calendar Year of 2023 will be due with the State Aid Library Subsidy Application (SALSA) to be completed in 2025. The application may have an earlier due date, but the final cut off date for the audit/financial review will be due by October 1, 2025.

 

What to Submit

According to §131.32 (2) "The audit shall be filed every year for libraries which receive annually $50,000 or more in State income or every third year, with a financial review filed in the years that an audit is not required, for libraries which receive annually less than $50,000 in State income."

Current schedule of audits and financial reviews (2024).

The schedule above indicates the minimum requirement as based on the library's state income. System's may have separate requirements above what is listed in the schedule, to which member libraries should adhere to if required. 

 

File Naming Structure

Audit-Review-District-Library-Year.pdf

  • Example: Audit-Review-Allentown-Dimmick-2021.pdf
  • Year represents the year that the audit covers

For other file naming instructions click here.

 

The Difference between an Audit and Financial Review

The purpose of the document needs to be stated within the Auditor's Report or similar report attached to the filing. This report would address if the auditor conducted an audit or financial review. 

 

Associated Laws

§131.32 (2) Proof of Eligibility

(2) Per capita State aid documentation. Per capita State aid documentation shall conform with the following: For expenditures made during a fiscal year completed prior to the October 1 deadline for filing the application for State aid, an independent auditor’s report, performed in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards, of the entire operation, which includes income from all sources and related expenditures and fund balances of the library during the fiscal year ending December 31 or June 30 shall accompany or precede the application for State aid. The audit shall be filed every year for libraries which receive annually $50,000 or more in State income or every third year, with a financial review filed in the years that an audit is not required, for libraries which receive annually less than $50,000 in State income. Libraries which have total operating expenditures of less than $50,000 and which receive annually less than $15,000 in State income shall have 2 years from the effective date of this section to comply. Because State aid and Federal funds do not constitute local financial effort, local financial effort will be determined by subtracting the total amount of State aid and Federal funds paid to the library during its fiscal year from the total expenditures of the library that year. The balance remaining shall be regarded as the local effort of the library for that year, less expenditures that are declared ineligible by this chapter. State aid shall be considered fully spent at the end of each year in which it is received by a library.